Thursday, 30 October 2008

These days, industries are finding it more and more difficult to set themselves apart from their competition. As segments become commoditized price devolves into the main motivating factor for companies interested in continuing to acquire new business and new customers. To counter this trend, a company has to find a niche, whether it’s service and support, the quality of the product being sold, or how fast a transaction can be completed and services rendered. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the travel industry, where quality of service and customer retention are critical.

Bali Discovery Tours is a full service travel agency selling vacations to the island of Bali, Indonesia, over the Internet. Visitors to their website can book stays at hundreds of hotels and villas on-line. In addition, they provide a wide range of activities and excursions in Bali that visitors to their site can inquire about or book. As can be imagined, the exchange and tracking of information between Bali Discovery Tours and their clientele is the lifeblood of their business.Bali Discovery Tours Logo

Before their adoption and implementation of SmarterTicket, Bali Discovery had relied upon a rather archaic system of website-generated emails. When a customer had an inquiry or wanted to book a trip, a hotel room or ask a question, they filled out a simple form on the Bali Discovery website. That form information was then sent to a generic email alias which forwarded it to nine different Bali Discovery employees. With no organized dispatching of an inquiry, Bali Discovery noticed that a number of different things could happen : it was answered correctly and immediately, it was answered multiple times by multiple representatives (sometimes with conflicting information), or it wasn’t answered at all because one representative would assume that another representative would answer it. The confusion and frustration that developed as a result of the latter two happenings was palpable and soon became a real problem for Bali Discovery and its management. Something needed to be done to streamline the process and to ensure clients were answered quickly, efficiently and correctly. According to Markus Niesen, E-Commerce Manager for Bali Discovery, “It became clear that we needed an email management solution to cope with the ever growing number of bookings and enquiries generated by our website.”

However, whatever solution Bali Discover implemented needed to be able to be integrated with their existing infrastructure (a website as well as their existing call center) with little modification. It also needed to be easy enough for multiple representatives to learn quickly so as to keep from disrupting normal business operations. SmarterTools was able to meet with Bali Discovery Tours and provide them with SmarterTicket, a fully manageable sales/support ticketing system that was able to meet, and in some cases surpass, each and every requirement issued by Bali Discovery.